


There's Something About Blue

by usetheforceponyboy



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 06:44:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5733412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usetheforceponyboy/pseuds/usetheforceponyboy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Mara has to die, then this is the way she should.  After living a long life and leaving and enduring legacy behind, she has one last conversation with her husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's Something About Blue

Luke’s normally feather weight heart felt about 30 pounds too heavy as he walked to Mara’s heavily guarded private quarters in the highest grade medcenter in the galaxy.  Old habits catch up to everyone in time, and her’s had taken most of her lung tissue.  She was beyond the help of the advanced medical technology at this point, and she felt she was ready to go anyway.  Luke wasn’t so sure he was as ready to let her go.  He paused before her door and took a deep breath.  He opened it and entered with his best smile.

                It took all Mara’s strength just to return the smile.  “I was wondering when I would be graced with the illustrious presence of the Grand Master Jedi…himself…”  Her head fell back as she tried to catch her breath.  Luke cringed internally at the rasping gasps.

                “Shhh now.  We can’t be wasting your capacity for talking.”  Luke brushed a faded strand of hair from his wife’s face.  They both were so changed, and never more so did he feel it than then.  Old scars from wampa attacks a million years ago had taken their toll on his face, and were now covered by a graying beard.  The galaxy of freckles on Mara’s face had long since faded, and her skin had thinned enough to produce wrinkles she never had the heart to care about.  The sickness, too, had drained her of her old beauty, almost making her unrecognizable to any outside observer.  To Luke, though, she was still there.  She would always be there.

                Only one machine was left, connected to Mara through discrete tubes, to help her breathe for at least a little while longer.  It provided a bit of noise in the background, but her voice was so weak Luke had to lean in close to hear her properly.  “The one person I’ve been excited to talk to, and he tells me to shut up.”  She smiled again, and he couldn’t help but smile back.  Mara could feel the fear and sadness radiating from her husband, and for a moment the need to relieve some of it from him eclipsed her battle to survive a few more minutes.  She took the deepest breath she could manage.  “And he’s wearing that hideous shirt to boot.”

                Luke’s familiar grin shined through for a second.  “You bought me this shirt!”  They were referring to the peculiar shiny green shirt he wore under his standard brown Jedi robes.  Mara laughed as best she could, but it only came out as breathy wheezing and convulsions.  “Okay, okay let’s calm down, I don’t want that to be my last words to my wife!”  She leaned her head back and rested before mustering another smile.

                “I’m surprised you can still fit in it.”

                “I am too, honestly, but I wanted to make a good last impression.”  The full weight of the moment collapsed on to Luke again, and he turned his head away to swallow back his tears.

                “Hey…”  Mara lifted her hand just enough to touch her husband’s cheek, and he turned back to face her.  Luke tenderly placed his own hand upon it to help her keep it on his face.  Her skin was soft but cold.  “You’re going to be fine when I’m gone, I know you.”

                “It’s just…”  Luke contemplated for a second how to articulate his emotions.  “It took so much to get used to living with you, and now I’m going to have to get used to living without you.”  He felt guilty at what he perceived to be a selfish statement.

                “It seems…”  Mara took a breath.  “That I have a funny way of barging into people’s lives…”  Another breath.  “Turning their world completely on end…”  And another.  “And then leave suddenly while leaving a big mess in my wake.”

                “You did that to me in the best possible way, dear.”  Luke whispered. 

                Nothing more was needed to be said for the moment, and it was the perfect time for silence.  Luke kept Mara’s hand on his face, savoring her touch.  She rubbed her thumb a bit to help comfort him, for she was in a place beyond the needing of comfort now.  They stared intently into each other’s eyes, Luke trying hard to burn her fading greenness into his mind, so that he may never forget them.  After a while he asked if she was afraid at all while he set her hand back upon her chest.

                Mara shook her head.  “Not afraid.  Worried.  About Ben.”  Luke nodded in response remembering the hours Ben spent locked in his room after his own final talk with Mara.  “He will need you.  And you can’t let grief take you away from him.”  Her love for her son showed on her face, and Luke mouthed the words _I won’t_ to her.  They spent some more time in silence as the day started to die around them.

                “Oh look!  It’s evening.”  It was Mara’s favorite time of day.  “You know there’s something about blue, the blue light”

                Luke nodded as he looked about the now blue tinted room.  The time for passing subtly crept upon them, and a small tinge of courage entered Mara’s weakened heart.

                “Luke.”

                “Yes, love?”

                “You are the only person to give me hope.”

                The light was rapidly fading, as was Mara.  Luke smiled.  “I’m glad to have given that much, at least.”

                “Oh farmboy.”  Mara smiled one last time.  “You’ve given me so much more than that.  It’s just that hope seems to be the only thing to keep the light going.”  Tears could not be held back any longer.  “Now Luke.”  A different sort of light started to enter Mara’s vision.  “If you care at least an inkling for me right now, you would leave.”  Nothing more needed to be said.  Ideally he would’ve wanted to be there to watch her go, but he knew that this was the way she truly wanted it to be, facing the unknown alone.

                Luke gently left a lingering kiss upon Mara’s forehead.  “I love you.”  She gave one last familiar ruffle to his hair.

                “I love you too.”

                And with that, Luke turned and walked quietly out the door.  The image of the last time Mara saw her greatest love lingered for a bit in her vision.  Finally the blueness of the room drifted away as she gave into the imposing warmth of the Force.  She closed her eyes as she let out her last breath, a smile still playing on her lips.

*******

                Warm, morning light streams through the window of poor dwelling on a planet far out of the way of any discourse in crumbling Republics or lords of the Sith rapidly gaining power.  A young free spirited child is happily eating a meager breakfast of hot mush as her mother lovingly pulls her golden red hair back under a simple cloth for the day.  Her father is skillfully sketching yet another portrait of his beloved little girl with a piece of left over coal from the last night’s fire.

                “Mara dear,” The father asks, as his hand is unknowingly being guided by a seemingly magical energy field.  “Have you thought at all what you would like to be when you are older?”

                Mara’s mind whirls with the difficult question at hand.  She looks to her mother, who is now at the washing basin in front of the window in their tiny kitchen.  Her face is bathed in yellow light.

                “I want to be the sun!”  She smiles brightly back at her father.  Her mother accidentally lets out a loud chuckle.

                “Well, I don’t know about becoming a sun…”  He quickly adds the finishing touches to his incredibly lifelike drawing.  “But maybe, at least for someone special, you will shine as brightly as a thousand suns.”


End file.
